After my shift relief arrived on Saturday morning, a few of my buddies and I went to a nearby Circle K for an after graveyard shift beer. We sat on a tailgate, drank our beer, conversed for a while before we headed out for our separate homes.

I had to go by Kroger’s and buy some groceries before I went home. I crawled into bed at about 7:00. Normally I would have snuggled with Lisa, but she is in Houston this weekend. I fell asleep immediately. Our youngest son woke me at about 7:20. He was coughing, so I gave him some medicine and put him back in bed and fell back into my bed and sleep to about 3 pm. That was an unusually good day of sleep.

After I got up, I vegetated in the house for a while before joining the little boys in the backyard. They were playing on their “clubhouse.” I went to check on the blackberry’s that we have planted and found it had a number of ripe berries, so I called one of the boys over to help pick the berries. He and I were steadily picking and eating the big luscious berries, when I looked down and saw a snake coiled up right in front of me.

I was startled and jumped away. I got a rake and picked the snake up and moved him to where I could see him better. It was a hognose snake.

I love hognose snakes. I called my non-berry eating young son over and gave the two boys a demonstration of how this snake acts when he encounters a person. The snake, true to his nature, flared his neck and opened his mouth trying to look as menacing as he could. I then struck the ground next to the snake, and he convulsed a bit and rolled over on his back to play dead.

Next I rolled him over on his belly a few times, so the boys could watch him immediately switch back to laying on his back. Hognose snakes seem to think that they must be on their back in order to play dead. I picked the snake up so the boys could touch him. I then let him go in a rose bush so neither of our cats would get him.

By the time I let the snake go, it was time to head for work again. We were very busy trouble shooting a couple of items early in the shift but things have now slowed down.

When I went to the central control room for our top-operators meeting with the shift supervisors, I found a gecko by the door and caught it. I was hoping to bring it home to show the boys but it got away.

Lisa should be home before I leave for work tomorrow.
Dieu bénissent notre famille! Amen.

Coram Deo,
Kenith